6 Month Update

• Age of your EC-child 

DS 6 months old.

•  We started at... birth.

• Generally speaking we are doing..

Three parts to this answer:

1. in-arms - very well.

2. at night - good - a few misses per week.

3. on the floor - improving from dreadful!

•  How do you know your baby has to go?

In-arms - squiming, kicking legs, chi-pee warmth on hip, pop on and off boob.

At night - squirm, restlessness, little noises, pop on and off boob.

On the floor -  frown/eye contact, timing/intuition and restless behaviour, just starting to be sitting up & willy grabbing.

•  Is there a difference for poos and pees?

Poops happen early in morning, when he has his first pee for the day, and happen in the laundry basin over the 'baby bidet'

•  Which positions/receptacles do you use? 

In-arms at the laundry basin a lot, wide bowl also. Other sinks as well. In arms when out.

• Do you use nappies or training pants?

Nakey butt at home, one wets during high miss times (meals, visitors, cold weather), disposables on certain outings, or onewet undies. He sits/lays on washable mats - waterproofing the environment rather than the baby!

• How are you doing away from home?

Using one wet pants with parent room visits. Disposables at restaurants, visits to parents houses sometimes (still with pee breaks), movies.

• What are you doing at night?

Nakey in bed, perhaps a t-shirt or singlet for warmth is all he needs. He sleeps with a flannel cloth nappy or a flannel between his legs so that it is easy to remove if he wets it, without disturbing him. It is also easier to give him a pee break this way. I hold him over the wide bowl when he kicks me awake. He sleeps on a fleece mat with a towel in the middle and plastic on the bottom, which protects the bed and makes it easy to move him around. We were having a stage of many misses at night, then I started drinking less in the evenings and feeding him preferably from one side in bed, and they evaporated to easy catches every 2-3 hours.

• Who takes baby to the potty?

Me and Daddy.

• Accidents - how many do you have and what times are especially accident-prone?

Mornings I miss several quick pees in a row on waking - he sits on a mat with a flannel between his legs. This is just starting to change as his bladder capacity is growing. He is beginning to crawl off the bed if he needs to go - a good sign. I have misses while he is independent on the floor - still quite a few depending on the day. He frowns before a pee, so I can watch for that. Many misses still on the floor times - he is on a washable crazy quilt, and I soak up misses with a cloth as well. I try to put him down after a pee, but it doesn't make much difference yet. He seldom pees on me though, and is really good in a carrier and holding well when we go to the shops for walks.

• Other new insights:

Mobility - starting to sit up has been the key to improving misses at floor time - I realised he'd sit up to pee.

• What do you like most about ecing at the moment?

That he doesn't wear nappies all the time like his contemporaries! Having him nappy free at night is really inspiring to me. Things are improving all the time.

• Do you ever wish you'd have never heard about it?

No. It is challenging at times with frequent misses - but they are just accidents and will get less as he grows. They are easy to clean. No poopy misses for a long time.